Learn a Language

Anyone who commutes 20 minutes or more a day and is not regularly acquiring at least a basic working proficiency in other languages doesn’t realize how much time they are wasting. The Pimsleur language courses are simply amazing – they are entirely audio-based, and they do the repetition for you, unlike VocabuLearn, In-Flight and other recorded methods that are utterly useless because most CD players will not allow you to rewind and repeat an individual word. Pimsleur courses involve so much repetition that it might seem monotonous at times. But anyone who has learned a language knows that such repetition is the key. Put them on in the car, or with headphones on your bicycle, and just listen. You’ll be amazed how much sinks in, almost effortlessly.

The Pimsleur courses are prohibitively expensive, but they should be thought of as the audio equivalent of books published by E. J. Brill. They are priced for libraries to buy them, and those of us who are not independently wealthy will simply borrow rather than purchase them.

There are some languages (inexplicably including Arabic) that Pimsleur does not offer, or offers only a short set of lessons that will not take one very far. For some of these, the Teach Yourself Conversation series is probably the next best thing. It doesn’t do as much repetition, but it is manageable for in-car use, and if one is able to start with a Pimsleur course, the Teach Yourself Conversation course will then take you a bit further.

Alas, there is unlikely to be a Pimsleur Coptic or Teach Yourself Syriac Conversation any time soon…